Anime and manga have long struggled against piracy, and while this battle has been a losing one for as long as anyone can remember, things have definitely taken a turn for the better in recent years. Even in the last year or so, Japan has begun cracking down on anime and manga piracy more aggressively than ever before, even enlisting the help of AI in fighting anime and manga piracy. Amidst the arrests of anime and manga leakers and copyright strikes against anime piracy sites, manga publishers are now going after one of the biggest scan sites, Manga Dex.
According to a recent post on X by @MangaMoguraRE, the popular manga scan site Manga Dex recently received countless copyright infringement notices numbering in the hundreds. These notices were reportedly served by many major manga publishers, which have not been named in the post, but users have already reported hundreds of chapters, if not entire series, being taken down on the site already. While the site is still live and accessible, it is unclear how long this will remain the case, as with such an overwhelming number of DMCA notices, Manga Dex could very well join the long list of obsolete anime and manga piracy sites very soon.
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Manga Dex Joins the Growing List of Piracy Sting Targets
While the piracy sting against Manga Dex is good news for manga publishers, many readers appear to be divided on the news. The main reason for fans’ frustration is the fact that many Japanese manga have still not been localized, leaving fans outside of Japan with no way to read many of their favorite series. In fact, one of the top comments under the above post reads, “If manga publishers can just bring their products to the international community as fast as their local products, piracy would be minimized.”
While Viz and Manga Plus have certainly upped their simulpub game in recent years, non-Shueisha series are still largely inaccessible, and it is mostly here that scans and scanlation websites such as Manga Dex come in to bridge this gap.
There’s no doubt that manga piracy greatly hurts the industry as well as the creators of these manga, though accessibility issues prove the conversation surrounding piracy is far more nuanced than it seems. For now, manga fans can only hope that manga publishers soon clue in on the medium’s growing global demand and improve their services and international offerings in the years to come, as this would go a long way in fighting piracy at the ground level.
Source: @MangaMoguraRE on X.
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